Gotta love a good antihero!
This one has been crippled by a bullet, his career as fearsome vigilante The Roach finished. Or is it?
The Roach: A Vigilante Crime Thriller by Rhett C. Bruno
Villains once feared him. Kids collected Roach action figures. He had a bullet-proof body suit (minus that one spot, that "Achilles heel" that left him open to the paralyzing bullet), a scary looking gas mask, and a reputation for being as impossible to kill as a creepy cockroach. Now the world believes The Roach, if he existed at all, is officially dead.
But he's alive in his dirty apartment above a 1980s lair that is as not high-tech like the Bat Cave, and his wheelchair is not enhanced or anywhere near being an awesome roach-mobile. Reese is cynical and irritable, pretending not to enjoy the attentions of the woman he saved too late: she was raped, and she chose not to abort her rapist's baby. Now she's an accomplished lawyer and daughter of the Mayor of Iron City, but she makes weekly visits to Reese, her now-paraplegic rescuer.
"He’s a shriveled old drunk, living like a hermit and waiting for his life to end. All that’s left to do is wallow in the mistakes that led him here." and then to come out of hiding and fight crime once again - from a wheelchair this time.
The novel opens with Reese ready to roll -- into the river, to his death -- but a timely cry for help keeps him going a while longer. This time, he gets no gratitude from the victim of two bullies. Gotta love the description of the chubby sidekick: he "looked like a little Hostess Cupcake ready to get the cream squeezed out of him."
The bullied kid, Isaac, keeps coming back to haunt the old guy in the wheelchair. And Reese (who isn't all that old) finds ways to take advantage without really exploiting the kid. Isaac needs to learn how to handle bullies, and nobody learned that lesson better than Reese, who was raised in a foster home.
Corruption, lies, abuse of power, more lies, betrayals - all the expected thrills of the thriller genre lurk in the shadows, waiting for Reese to expose them. One of the biggest exposes will come at the end, along with a vivid reminder to us all that foster homes, set up to be safe havens for children in peril, all too often imperil the children in the "care" of abusive, sick, evil criminals. If you follow the news, you might have seen that a large number of sex trafficking victims are recruited out of foster care. If you read John L. Monk, you'll get an eyeful of awful stories about kids in foster homes. (And lots of redeeming moments as well.)
The PTSD, the sordid memories, the many life events that haunt Reese, are illustrated here with stunning clarity and high impact.
Never a dull moment in this novel, and hardly ever a bright moment, either. The ending caught me by surprise. Really? Really?? And when offered prosthetic legs and a new chance at serving Iron City as The Roach, our man says "F" you and no sequels are dangling before our eyes? There must be sequels. This has to be Book One of a series. Because if it isn't, I'd one-star the ending.
The plot isn't as air-tight as I'd like. E.g., the teenage girl who's to call 9-1-1 and oh yeah, let's hope she doesn't see the dead body in the living room. (Then again, it could be a good metaphor for the proverbial elephant that Reese keeps overlooking.) Nurse Cigarette reappears, and what were the chances she'd...
But I like coincidences, and I like the nurse.
And I love the pre-internet, pre-high-tech vibe of the 1980s. The big hair and shoulder pads, eww, I remember those all too well.
If you read for escapism and a place where good triumphs over evil, you might find this book to be more frustrating and heartbreaking than you can handle. If this is not Book One of a series, I'm officially depressed.
But I'm also impressed. Rhett Bruno is the master at spinning an antihero you'll love/hate (see also the "Titanborn" series).
Go Reese! GO ROACH! Come back! Come back!
NOTE: Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley, Aethon Books, and Rhett Bruno!
Rhett Bruno
grew up in Hauppauge, New York, and studied at the Syracuse University School of Architecture where he graduated cum laude.
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This club is for fans of USA Today Bestselling author Rhett C. Bruno. His works include: The Circuit Saga, Buried Goddess Saga, Children of Titan Series and the upcoming Audible Original, The Luna Missile Crisis. He his also one of the founders of Aethon Books and Sci-Fi/Fantasy Bridge.
While studying architecture Rhett continued to write as much as he could, but finding the time during the brutal curriculum proved difficult. It wasn’t until he was a senior that he decided to finally pursue his passion for Science Fiction. After rededicating himself to reading works of the Science Fiction author’s he always loved, (Frank Herbert, Timothy Zahn, Heinlein, etc.) he began writing “The Circuit: Executor Rising”, The first part of what he hopes will be a successful Adult Science Fiction Series.
Since then Rhett has been hired by an Architecture firm in Mount Kisco, NY. But that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to work on “The Circuit” and all of the other stories bouncing around in his head. He is also currently studying at the New School to earn a Certificate in Screenwriting in the hopes of one day writing for TV or Video Games.